Ball screw drives serve to transform a rotary motion into a translational motion and are used, for example, in the field of automotive vehicles for the adjustment of steering columns and throttle valves, in mechanical transmissions or in electric door-locking mechanisms. In a ball screw drive known from the document DE 33 23 345 A1, two profiled rings are arranged next to each other within a nut body. Each of these rings is made up of two parts, and the two profiled ring parts of each ring abut with flat ends on each other. A gap is situated between two return channel forming sections of the two parts of each profiled ring. As a result, this structure has complicated contours. The two profiled rings are fixed in the nut body by being integrally cast or injected therein.
In a ball screw drive known from the document U.S. Pat. No. 2,924,113 A, two multi-piece rings are arranged in a nut housing. Each ring comprises an outer washer, an inner washer, a radial flange and a tubular wall. All these parts together with the nut housing form a closed chamber that is filled with rubber.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 3,009,367 shows a ball screw drive that is made up of a very large number of individual parts that have to be assembled in a complicated procedure. This ball screw drive is probably very cost-intensive due to the fact that it involves an expensive combination of separate machined parts and shaped parts.